This invention relates to modeling geological structures and properties.
Geologists, geophysicists and petroleum engineers use models, including computerized models, of the earth's shell to plan exploration and production of hydrocarbons and, to a lesser extent, other minerals. As hydrocarbons become more and more scarce, the accuracy of the computerized models becomes increasingly important to limiting the cost of locating and producing hydrocarbons and the associated cost of hydrocarbon products, such as gasoline and heating oil.
Some of these models include databases of information about the subsurface of the earth. The databases exist in paper form, such as charts, graphs and tables, and in computerized form, such as data stored on tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks or other storage media. Frequently, these databases are organized to allow access to all of the information about each individual subsurface structure. For example, the name, well log, age, depth and other similar information for a particular subsurface structure is stored so that it can be retrieved as a group.
In the last few years, it became desirable for users of such data to be able to visualize the earth's subsurface. To accomplish this, the model stores topological data regarding the earth's subsurface which is used to build visual representations for analysis purposes. Generally, the existing databases are altered to allow the storage of topological information along with the other information.